Author of "Madison Avenue Manslaughter," a critical assessment of the current state of the advertising industry. Winner of the Axiom Gold Business Book Award for the best Marketing / Advertising book of 2016. Winner of the Independent Publisher's Silver Business Book Award 2017.

Marla has worked in advertising, focused on media and communications planning for over 25 years, leading diverse multi-layered accounts for clients like Procter & Gamble and Avon, among others. This experience has afforded her a genuine understanding of the client and agency relationship, and the role of people in delighting clients and driving growth for them. In 2012, she was recognized by AdvertisingAge as a ‘Woman to Watch’ and was the recipient of the John A. Reisenbach Foundation Distinguished Citizen Award in 2016.

Marsha’s expertise is the science of human decision-making: the subconscious motivations, implicit cues and triggers that drive consumer engagement, preference and behavior. When first developing this expertise (in grad school at the University of Wisconsin Madison, doing research in the psychology of persuasion and behavioral economics), Marsha founded Lindsay, Stone & Briggs in order to help brand marketers drive YOY increases in sales, share, margin and brand strength. Today, Marsha research on what works best to accelerate the growth of brands and innovations spans 30 years and served C-Suites from the Fortune 100 to VC infused start-ups. It’s been reported by Investor’s Business Daily, NPR and The New York Times; published in Fast Company, Adobe’s CMO.com, Forbes, Ad Age, and the international Journal of Brand Strategy; featured at The Conference Board, Monitor-Deloitte’s think-tank at UC Berkeley, Zurich’s Gottlieb Dutweiler Institute of Economic and Social Studies, The World Business Forum in New York City and LSB’s Brandworks University.

PROFESSOR CHARLES SPENCE
Head of Crossmodal Research Laboratory
Dept. of Experimental Psychology

Professor Charles Spence is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University (http://psy.medsci.ox.ac.uk/research/crossmodal-research-laboratory). He is interested in how people perceive the world around them. In particular, how our brains manage to process the information from each of our different senses (such as smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch) to form the extraordinarily rich multisensory experiences that fill our daily lives.

His research focuses on how a better understanding of the human mind will lead to the better design of multisensory foods, products, interfaces, and environments in the future. His research calls for a radical new way of examining and understanding the senses that has major implications for the way in which we design everything from household products to mobile phones, and from the food we eat to the places in which we work and live.

ROGER BOLTON
President
Arthur W. Page Society

President of Arthur W. Page Society -- global membership organization for corporate chief communication officers and PR agency CEOs -- whose members help their enterprises build brand and reputation and earn trust by developing a strong corporate character and authentically engaging with key stakeholders. Prior experience in corporate communications at Aetna and IBM, and in government public affairs at the White House, U.S. Treasury, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Congress.

MELISSA WAGGENER ZORKIN
CEO
WE Communications

To her clients and colleagues, Melissa Waggener Zorkin is renowned for her belief in purpose, possibility and the power of communications to transform businesses and move people to action. Under Melissa’s direction as CEO, along with co-founder Pam Edstrom, WE Communications has grown to become one of the world’s largest global independent communications firms with a talented work force of more than 800 strong. Developing future agency leaders and motivating/mentoring young people to build a career in communications are among Melissa’s top priorities.

Melissa recently joined the Board of Advisors to the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Public Relations, along with other corporate and agency leaders from some of the world’s top companies to connect students and academics with the PR industry. For Melissa, it’s always been important that successful businesses use their influence to help make a difference beyond profits, and she is recognized frequently for her efforts. A Mercy Corps board member since 2006, Melissa is particularly interested in helping women entrepreneurs start their own businesses around the world, and she has been recognized for her contributions, particularly in Africa. Melissa also ensures that WE walks its talk in many creative ways, most recently, by creating the Global Pro Bono program, which allows employees to do impactful communications work in different parts of the world, including Ghana and Rwanda. In addition to giving all employees 16 hours off annually in service to their favorite non-profit organizations, WE recently established the Pam Edstrom Scholarship fund, which brings in new talent into the communications industry.

FLORIAN HALLER
OWNER
Serviceplan

YVETTE DOBROMIROVA
Founder
Pro PR

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ANDREW GARRIHY
CMO, Consumer Business, Western Europe
Huawei

Andrew is an international marketer with over 18 years of experience developing and transforming high profile brands.

RICHARD BROWNING
Inventor of the human jet suit
& Founder, Gravity

Richard is an English inventor, entrepreneur and speaker. He founded Gravity Industries Ltd in March 2017, the company behind the "Daedalus Mark 1", a flight suit that uses six miniature jet engines to achieve vertical flight. The kerosene engines are rated at 22kg of thrust each. Browning uses his arms to control the direction and speed of the flight, while a display inside the helmet gives updates on fuel consumption and other usage data. He achieved a speed of 32.02 miles per hour (51.53 km/h) with the suit during a Guiness World Records attempt for ‘Fastest speed in a body controlled jet engine powered suit’.

Browning has been dubbed the 'real-life Iron Man' by media outlets around the world.

BRETT LOFGREN
President, North America and Global CRO
Newswhip

Brett Lofgren is currently the President of NewsWhip, North America. NewsWhip is a social discovery and content analytics platform that tracks and predicts engagement from the world's news and social, powering a suite of products used by journalists, editors, marketers, communications and PR professionals.

Meabh Quoirin
Co-Owner and CEO
Foresight Factory

The Foresight Factory (formerly the Future Foundation) collects and analyses exclusive data from 50,000 consumers in 20 countries. Meabh will set the scene for the Summit, identifying the key new consumer trends likely to affect our business in the next 12 months. Some you may know, others may surprise you!

Simon Gosling
Futurist
Unruly

Simon is a Thought Leading Futurist in the field of Marketing & AdTech, inc. AI, IoT, Connected Home, Voice, Language Recognition, Computer Vision, Social Bots, AR, VR, MR. He has crafted the story of Unruly Future Home, to give brands and agencies a glimpse of the Connected Home of 2020, the next wave of marketing.

Esther Carder
Media Specialist Partner
Kingston Smith

Esther Carder, Partner at specialist accounting firm Kingston Smith, designs and compiles their annual survey of UK agency profitability. For the first time, this is now being extended internationally and Esther is here to share the results. You’ll learn which types of agency are most profitable; why some agencies’ profit margins are declining; and why other agencies regularly outperform the market average

Julian is the Founder of thenetworkone and has final responsibility for all aspects of the Indie Summit

Dan Egerton
Founding Partner
Actus Consulting

Dan provides practical strategic advice to his clients helping them build long-term value in their businesses. He has worked with over 70 companies across a wide range of industries and has extensive experience with Marcoms, Technology and Healthcare businesses. He has also established and run a number of business myself.

He helps to unlock growth and profitability, setting a clear strategic roadmap as well as corporate restructuring and change management.

ALEX HALBUR
Managing Partner
Prosper Group

Alex has worked on all sides of the communications business for 20 years. He was a partner of FischerHealth—winner of the Holmes Report’s Health Care Firm of the Year and PRWeek’s Creative Agency of the Year. He sold the firm to Omnicom and completed a highly successful earn out. Alex is adept at designing and deploying systems that enhance business performance and value. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BS in Business Management.

TV presenter, conference facilitator and communications coach, with a career spanning fifteen years in front of the camera. When she’s not in the studio, Sian is a confident conference facilitator and moderator who, has worked with many of the world’s leading international brands.

KANIKA SINGAL
Country Director
Gartner

Kanika has 15+ years of experience as a skilled ‘entrepreneur’ for large organizations, with proven track record of launching businesses across global markets in business services, consumer, fashion, retail eCommerce and education sectors. Proven strengths in developing and executing market entry strategies, a segment focused product/ service development, developing a global work culture, productivity improvement and delivery, people leadership, and stakeholder management. Known as a multipotentialite- for multi-potential skills, across sectors and industries.

Current areas of interest: Work at the cusp of design+management+talent, in young and mature organization and build sustainable organizations

TIM WILLIAMS
Founding Partner
Ignition Consulting Group

Tim Williams is founder of Ignition Consulting Group, a U.S.-based consultancy with a global footprint devoted to helping agencies and other professionals service firms create and capture more value. Tim is a noted author, international speaker, and presenter for major associations and business conferences worldwide. His seminars have been featured by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), Association of National Advertisers (ANA, U.S.), Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA, U.K.), Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA, Canada), International Advertising Association (IAA), and numerous agency networks including WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Havas, Dentsu Aegis and many independent firms around the globe.

Tim is the author of two books, “Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success” and “Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out.”

VIVECA CHAN
Chairman & CEO
WE Marketing Group

Viveca is founded WE Marketing Group in 2005 together with 6 working partners. WE is the leading independent agency group in China with over 200 staff and offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and Hong Kong. Its mission: help global brands localize and local brands globalize. WE has the most senior management team that uniquely combines in depth China knowledge with multinational brand marketing experience. WE clients include Estee Lauder, Mercedes Benz, Sharp, Kjeldsens Butter Cookies, Visit California, Lufthansa Corelle, ICBC and many more.

Viveca started WE Digital in 2011, a digital agency with special expertise in China social media. Clients include Kjeldsens, Campbells/Swansons, Staples, Marriott Rewards, Nijiom, Cisco, Society of Actuaries and Visit California.

Viveca's latest venture is founding WE Commerce, providing one stop e-commerce solution including planning, product mix, channel development, sales management, warehousing and logistics, operation management, customer service, digital marketing and CRM. It has already has signed up two clients: Kjeldsens and Campbell's Swanson and is their on-line distributor, not just service provider.

Before starting WE, Viveca was Chairman & CEO of Grey Global Group, working for Grey for over 25 years. Viveca was instrumental in building Grey's China network since 1989 and developed its multi-disciplines including Mediacom, PR, CRM and interactive in the 90's and 2000's.

Toba manages the dynamic delivery of campaigns drawing up campaign and supplier plans as well as editing legal documents for content moderation.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The Summit is invitation-only, for up to 250 participants. A minimum of 80% of attendees are Owners and Senior Directors of independent agencies. Other attendees are speakers and invitees from companies with a legitimate interest in the independent sector.

The content is relevant to agencies from all marketing and communications disciplines, including advertising and marketing, public relations, media planning and buying, social media and all forms of digital communications.

A few of this year’s themes include:

- What’s going wrong in our industry – and what we can do about it
- Multi-sensory communication: a new revenue stream for agencies
- Integrity in the era of Fake News: inspirational stories from people who walk the talk
- The talent crisis in the agency business – how to tackle the issue
- New perspectives – from the west and the east - on networking, collaboration, artificial intelligence and innovation

THE INDIE SUMMIT 2018: AGENDA

The Summit has three major elements:

Thursday 17th May: A Day of Learning and Sharing

Friday 18th May: A Day of Inspiration

Over both days: plenty of opportunities for networking with other independent agency leaders

The networking program will begin on the evening of Wednesday 16th May, with a welcome cocktail reception to which all delegates are invited. The cost is included in the delegate fee. Once again, this is very kindly being hosted by our generous sponsor Kingston Smith, at their beautiful new office in Gresse Street, Central London. The evening continues with small scale “curated” dinners in fashionable London restaurants, for carefully chosen groups of between 12 to 15 delegates per restaurant. By the end of the evening, you will have many new friends and contacts. And then, throughout the conference days, we will ensure sufficient time to network with other delegates during coffee and lunch breaks. Finally, there will be a spectacular gala dinner on Thursday 17th, where THE INDIE AWARDS will be presented.

The Agenda is now almost complete, with just a few speakers yet to be confirmed. Here is what you can look forward to:

Wednesday 16th May:

AN EVENING OF CONTACT-MAKING AND SOCIALISING

18.30 Welcome cocktail reception Sponsored by Kingston Smith, at their new office in Gresse Street 19.30 “Curated dinners” in fashionable local restaurants

15.00 “The New Enablers”: five-minute talks from six entrepreneurs, all offering innovative services to independent agencies

15.30 Coffee break

16.00 The future of our industry: tackling the talent crisis

Mark Slattery, People Management Specialist, Kingston Smith, presents new research into how to attract and retain talent - followed by an expert panel discussion. Panellists to include:

Marla Kaplowitz, CEO, The 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies)Kathy Cripps, former Head of the PR Council and Partner, Prosper Group, New YorkToba Shahabi, Create Product Exec, Clear Channel Outdoor, London

We will finish at 17.00 allowing those that need to, plenty of time to reach the airport. For everyone else, we’ll be hosting informal drinks at a local pub and celebrating the Royal Wedding that takes place on Saturday 19th May.

Networking opportunities

Networking and getting to know your fellow delegates is an important part of the Indie Summit – such opportunities include:

Lunches and coffee-breaks with plenty of time to share experience, develop new contacts and make new friends.

Welcome cocktail on Wednesday evening: with the option of small-scale “curated dinners” with like-minded fellow delegates.

THE INDIE AWARDS and Celebration Dinner on Thursday at the amazing Wallace Collection, central London.

For more information on the Indie Summit networking events and book tickets, click here

Where can i stay?

There are hotels for all budgets, close to the Summit venue. London also has a thriving Airbnb community.